The present invention relates to a contact type magnetic disk drive and, more particularly, to a contact type magnetic disk drive including a magnetic head capable recording or reproducing data in sliding contact with a magnetic disk or medium.
Recently, high-density recording has been steadily enhanced in the data memory file art. One of the keys to high-density recording is the reduction of the gap between a magnetic head or electromagnetic transducer for writing and reading data and a magnetic disk or medium storing data. To reduce the gap, a contact type magnetic disk drive capable of recording or reproducing data in or out of a disk with its magnetic head sliding on the disk has been proposed in, e.g., H. Hamilton xe2x80x9cCONTACT RECORDING ON PERPENDICULAR RIGID MEDIAxe2x80x9d, Journal of Magnetic Society of Japan, Vol. 15, Supplement No. S2(1991), pp. 483-490 and Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 5-508808.
The contact type disk drive has the head mounted on a magnetic head slider. A suspension spring is used to fix the slider in place and to urge it against a disk. In this type of disk drive, the slider is urged against the disk by a load of 10 mg to 500 mg which is one figure to two figures smaller than a load of 2 g to 10 g particular to a conventional magnetic disk drive with a flying slider, so that the wear of the head and disk is reduced. To implement such a small load, the suspension spring is provided with a length great enough to reduce its force at the free end. Usually, the suspension spring has a length of 5 mm or above.
In the contact type disk drive, the wear of the head and disk cannot be reduced unless the spring constant of the suspension spring is reduced to reduce the intensity of shock to occur when the head and disk contact. However, reducing the spring constant brings about a problem that servo data read errors ascribable to the resulting low seek rigidity obstruct high-density recording. Specifically, in the event of the seek of the slider, a frictional force acts in the seek direction and causes the slider to vibrate in the seek direction. The vibration causes read errors to occur in a servo signal, preventing high track density from being achieved.
The vibration of the slider in the seek direction will be effectively reduced if the rigidity of the suspension spring or that of a load beam spring in the seek direction is increased. That is, an increase in seek rigidity shifts the resonance frequency to the higher frequency side and thereby reduces the amplitude of vibration. However, an increase in seek rigidity directly translates into an increase in spring constant which, in turn, leads to an increase in load. This would aggravate the wear of the head and disk. The above contradictory conditions prevent the improvement of seek rigidity and the reduction of wear from being achieved at the same time.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a contact type magnetic disk drive implementing high-density recording and high reliability.
In accordance with the present invention, a contact type magnetic disk drive includes a contact pad carrying an electromagnetic transducer for recording and reproduction on an end thereof, and capable of sliding in contact with a magnetic disk medium. The contact pad is mounted on a magnetic head slider. A suspension spring supports the magnetic head slider. A spring support mechanism supports the suspension spring. The suspension spring has a length smaller than 5 mm inclusive.
Also, in accordance with the present invention, a contact type magnetic disk drive includes a contact pad carrying an electromagnetic transducer for recording and reproduction on an end thereof, and capable of sliding in contact with a magnetic disk medium. The contact pad is mounted on a magnetic head slider. A gimbal spring supports the magnetic head slider. A load beam spring supports the gimbal spring. A spring support mechanism supports the load beam spring. The load beam spring has a length smaller than 5 mm inclusive.